My brother, the trooper

I have avoided writing on this blog for awhile, because I didn’t want to have to say what is real. I was hoping it would go away. But it hasn’t gone away—yet. About two weeks ago, my brother was diagnosed with a blood disease called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), very unusual for a person his age and in his good health. His bone marrow is not producing blood cells correctly and his platelets are very, very low. The good news is that he is feeling perfectly normal overall, and is able to go out and have fun and feel good. He started chemotherapy treatment this week, to kill off the bad cells and help promote the good ones, which might slow him down a bit. And then he will need to have a bone marrow transplant. Hopefully, we will find out this week if I (or my parents) are a bone marrow match. Then we can get moving on that. As scary as the bone marrow transplant may be, I think it will be a relief in a way, because it will be the major thing that can cure him. It will be rough, and the recovery period will take some time, but then it will be over. He has tons of friends and family who are supportive and care about him and want more than anything to see this disease go away.